by TChris

Dixie Shanahan's story isn't pretty. Her husband beat her for three days, angry that she became pregnant with their third child. He responded to her refusal to get an abortion by repeatedly punching her in the stomach. When she fled, her husband dragged her back into the house, pointed a shotgun at her and threatened to kill her.

At some point, Shanahan shot her husband. Whether she did so in response to another threatening move, or shot him in his sleep, was disputed at her trial. An Iowa jury convicted her, and a judge imposed a mandatory 50 year sentence. The judge didn't think the sentence was fair under the circumstances, but mandatory sentencing laws gave him no discretion.

The sentence, said Shanahan's attorney, was like one last beating.

Mandatory sentencing laws often lead to injustice.

But then, justice has become a rarer commodity since the "get tough on crime" movement swept the nation during the Reagan years. Declaring the courts too soft on crime, state legislators around the country decided that judgment was too important to be left to judges. They enacted mandatory sentencing guidelines that were supposed to produce tougher and more uniform sentences. Instead, those guidelines produce travesties.

It will be 35 years before Shanahan is eligible for parole.